Transcriber’s Note:
This book was written in a period when many words had not become standardized in their spelling. Titles of individuals were not always spelled with a capital letter. Proper nouns may have multiple spelling variations; inconsistent use of hyphens, diacriticals, and small capitals were not changed. Dialect, obsolete words, spelling errors and incorrect dates were not changed. Words missing from the text were not added.
Footnotes were renumbered sequentially and were moved to the end of the book. Obvious printing errors, such as backwards, upside down, and partially printed letters, were corrected. Letters in reverse order were corrected. Capital letters were added where missing at the beginning of sentences. Final stops missing at the end of abbreviations and sentences were added. Duplicate letters and words at line endings or page breaks were removed.
Unprinted dashes were added between entries within the Table of Contents. For consistency, space was added between letters B. C. Unprinted quotation marks were added and mis-matched quotation marks were adjusted to standard usage.
The List of Illustrations omits the Frontispiece, the image preceding the text and final image of the book. Contained in the List, but omitted in the book, were two illustrations: ‘Disappointed Gold Seekers’ and ‘Gold Seeker’s Grave.’ An Illustration entitled ‘City of Barcelona—Spain’ was inserted at that point instead.